The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) communication standard STANAG 4586 allows multiple UAVs to interoperate with a single UAV control system (UCS). Enabling a single UCS to interoperate with multiple UAVs increases command and control efficiency and flexibility in operating UAVs. Because of the interoperability advantages of STANAG 4586, many current and future UAVs are/will be compatible with the standard.
A UCS that is compliant with STANAG 4586 can be referred to as a multi-UAV control system (MUCS). STANAG 4586 provides for communication between a MUCS and a UAV via a point-to-point wireless link between the UAV and the UCS. If multiple UAVs are being controlled by the MUCS, each of the multiple UAVs has a distinct point-to-point wireless link between that UAV and the MUCS. The point-to-point links used with STANAG 4586, however, can suffer from severe bandwidth degradation in certain environments due to weather, geography, and/or enemy jamming. Because of this, there is a need to improve the robustness and reliability of communications for UAVs using the STANAG 4568 standard.